Start of week 4 - Rest week.

Or so they say.

Today we started week 4. It was supposed to be Yoga, but we decided to switch it out for Cardio X. Neither of us have fully come around to yoga yet, and since it calls for yoga twice this week we figured we would substitute for one of the days. On our schedule, it would fall on Monday or Saturday. We decided to switch tonight so that we didn't have to spend 1.5 hours after work doing this. That way on Saturday, we can give the full attention.

So, we start up the disk. And the first 20 minutes are yoga. lol. I was starting to think that we should have just done the regular yoga disk. After doing 9000 warrior poses and upside down dogs and chattybang push-up things, it quickly changed. We were suddenly thrown into Kenpo. There were about 5 or 6 sets of moves that were used in the regular Kenpo workout. So at least we knew them already and could get through them. I went at a slightly faster pace then they were going, which resulted in me doing 1 or 2 extra moves. I really wanted to make sure I was increasing my intensity, especially since this was going to be our rest week and since the first 20 minutes wasn't really giving me a workout yet. I thought this was supposed to be Cardio X!

As quick as we started Kenpo, it was over. Into Plyometrics. Again, the moves were taken fro the regular Plyo workout. I already knew where I could increase, and I did. I was quickly starting to think that I maybe should have taken it a little easier on Kenpo. This was the highest my HR was the whole workout. When we were finished with the plyo part, I was quickly trying to take my pulse. I was at about a 45 count in 15 seconds...I think. I lost count because it was going quick.

Did I mention that we haven't had a break yet? Usually in the workouts there will be a quick break to stretch or get some water. Of course we can always pause it if we want, but we try really hard to only break when the queues come up. Aside from a quick pause due to something in my shoe stabbing my toe, we didn't break at all. After Plyo was a group of random stuff that we haven't encountered before. I have a feeling they will show up on the Core Synergistics disk tomorrow. It was definitely core work. Running squats. You basically run in place while in a squat. Then there was this...roll...thing. You stand straight and bend at your knees and fall backwards and roll up onto your shoulders. Your feet come up and you try to touch your toes. Then you roll back up into a standing position. This was HARD. It is amazing how much strength you need to stand yourself back up without using your hands. Even using my hands I could barely stand back up.

Then finally. The Superman Banana. It is as ridiculous as it sounds, but wow what a workout. You lie on your stomach and raise your arms and legs, so essentially just your abdomen is touching the ground. Then, without using your hands or legs, you just roll over. Keeping your legs and arms off the ground the whole time. Now you're on your back with your legs and arms up. Oh, time to roll over again...of course, without using your hands or legs. Do this for a minute at random intervals. And thus ends Cardio X. I take back every thing I said or doubted in this disk. It is a GREAT workout. Highly recommend. Would use again. A++++++++++++++. (oh wait, wrong site).

All in all, a great workout. Tomorrow bring Core Synergistics...I think. I've yet to do this one so far, so it'll be a new learning curve. But I must say...I am actually excited to see what it'll bring for us.

End of week 3

I was so bad about writing last week. So I am going to cram 4 days of workouts here.

So Wednesday was Shoulders and Arms. This is the last week we are doing these routines, so I was trying to make sure to really...well...bring it. I increased my weight as much as I could. Since I forgot to write about it that night (and same goes for all the workouts), I've kinda forgot all the cool stuff that I might have done.

Thursday was yoga. I gotta say, this is going to be a tough one for me. Not so much because of the actual workout, but because I apparently have zero balance. So I fall...a lot. I really try to not let it bother me. This week I really tried to focus on doing the moves correctly, but man...these are hard.

Friday was Chest and Back. Again like all the other weights workouts, I just really tried to push myself to use bigger weights. Saturday was Kenpo. This one is strange. It's a good workout, but it is one of the few that when it is done, I feel like I didn't do enough, but I also don't feel like I could have done more.

Next week starts the 'rest' week. I think that just means there is no weights. The week calls for 2 rounds of yoga, two of this core synergistics (not sure what is involved there). Since yoga will fall on Monday and Saturday, we're going to swap the Monday yoga with the Cardio X. Yoga is 1.5 hours long, and we get home around 6:30 on the weekdays. So we'd rather spend the full time on Saturday doing the yoga. So hopefully it will be a good move.

I'll try to be better about writing this week.

p90x - Day....16?

I've lost track of what day it is. Yesterday was week 3 day 2. Plyometrics. Again. To keep in form with Monday, I really tried to do well in all the moves. Quality over quantity. I made sure to emphasize the stretches in the squats.

I haven't worked out this hard in a long time. At about half way I had to take my shirt off because it was just sticking to me. Also at one point, I felt like I was going to puke. But I worked through it. I still had to modify some of the squats. Especially the jumping ones like the jack squats or the Mary Catherines. (Superstar!) But where I modified I made sure that I was at least working harder. Instead of jumping around and doing the squats, I stepped into in but made sure my form was great and that I was flexing the muscles that I needed to. Just because you modify something to be 'easier' doesn't mean that it has to be less of a workout. In fact, I was going crazy at the standing military march. This exercise is basically walking in place, alternating raising the opposite foot and hand, as a military person might exaggeratedly march. Super low impact, but when you concentrate on the movement it really gets your heart going.

I wasn't wearing a HRM, so I am not 100% sure what my number were. At the end of the whole workout, I took a standing heart rate. I was at 60 beats in 20 seconds. ~180 bpm. And the last 4 exercises aren't even as high of an impact or as high in cardio as some of the other ones. I am pretty sure that my max was over 200. Not really sure if that is a good thing or not, but I survived. All in all, it was a great workout. Being able to looks back at the first day I did this and now, I can definitely see an improvement. Even though there isn't really any visible changes in my body, I can feel that I am trying harder and doing more now than I was. And that just increases my desire to do more.

As I have done even before starting this, I weight myself every morning. Before starting, I was regularly between 180 and 185. I would fluctuate a pound here and there, but I was always in that range. For the last week, I have been under 180 every time I have weighed myself. This morning I was at 175. I'm not doing this to lose weight, but that will be one of the results of doing this. I actually expect to come out of this right around my current weight, as I would expect to put on more muscle as my weight limit increases on some of these exercises.

I feel great. Not just because of the workout, but because of the accomplishment of knowing that we're actually completing the workouts. And we've gone this far. I must say, having someone to do this with makes it a lot better. Especially when both people have the same drive and determination to do everything they can with this and make it worth it.

p90x - Start of week 3

I forgot to post about the end of week 2. kenpo. For some reason I felt like I didn't work as hard on Saturday. It kinda got me down because I feel like I failed that day. My heart rate was lower than the week before. I guess that just means i need to step it up next time. Sunday was our rest day.

Today was Chest and Back and Ab ripper. When looking at my reps this week, they were lower than the previous two weeks. However, I think this is because I was really trying to concentrate on my form. Just because I write down 15 pull-ups, doesn't really mean that I did 15 GOOD pull-ups. So almost across the board on my pull-ups and push-ups, they were lower than previously. But, I feel good about it. I definitely feel it in my shoulders, and we going until I failed (which on average was around 8 reps). On the couple of exercises that required weights, I doubled up. Since the highest I have right now is 20, i held a 20 and a 10 in one hand. Luckily the exercise was only one arm at a time.

Ab ripper is still amazing. Looking back at the first week, I notice that the pain in my lower back on the first few moves has lessened. Which is good. For some reason today, my hips were really hurting. Which is odd because there aren't really any movements that require my hips. I think it might have come from the push-ups though, since I was really working on my form I might have stressed on my hips a little too much. Hopefully I'll see an improvement there. We don't do this chest and back routine until week 9 again, so that is where we'll really see if there is any improvement.

p90x - Day 11 and 12

Day 11 brought yoga. I'm still not sold on this. It's okay though, I'll come around. I still do it. I'm pretty sure we're going to split up week 4, when it calls for yoga twice that week. We're going to swap it out. I think I figured out why though. It starts out strong, and you really do get a good sweat. Then it goes into the balance moves. And you start to cool down. Finally is...what I call the mind moves. More stretching. So at this point there is limited sweating.

I think that I still feel like in order for it to be considered a workout, I need to sweat. And when I don't, I feel like I am not working hard enough and then I get bored and want to stop. I think I just need to work on realizing the whole point of yoga. I think it will be fine.

Tonight was legs and back. This workout seemed much harder than last week. I think we stepped up this week. I was really trying to focus on doing the squats better and do the pullups better. Near the end I felt myself slipping a lot, but I really tried to fight for better form. Then it was ab ripper again. We do this three times a week. It is actually starting to get a bit easier, in that I feel like I can do all moves with the people. Don't get me wrong, it's still really difficult. But now I am trying to concentrate on engaging my stomach and putting more on my abs to do the work. Hopefully it continues to get better. Tomorrow is Kenpo again. Should be good.

p90x - day 9 & 10

I forgot to write about Plyometrics last night. Holy crap, that is a killer. I do feel like I worked harder this week than last, so that's good. But man, that is one intense workout. I tried to concentrate on doing better squats and lunges, two things that have been my downfall in the past. It's an awesome feeling though when we finish it, which makes it totally worth it.

Tonight was shoulders and arms again. Remember the 20# weights I got last weekend? It was time to use them. And oh my goodness I was ambitious. I tried to stick with the 20# weights for as much as I could. I had to go back to 10# for some of the shoulder lifts. But otherwise I really tried to stick with the 20#. I was failing somewhere around 10 reps, so I feel like I improved. Last week I was able to be in the 15 range for a lot of them without really feeling pressed.

I am hoping that the 20# will at least last me another couple of weeks, but I have a feeling that it will quickly become too little for some of these workouts. That's when I'll have to decide to move up again. Time to keep checking yard sales and clearance stores. (Like where I found my 20# weight for $20).

It was a good workout night tonight. Tomorrow is yoga, so I'm hoping that it will be nice to do some stretching a bit, but it definitely won't be a resting night.

p90x - Start of week 2

We started week 2 last night. Pullups and pushups again. I moved up to 20# for the shoulder exercises. Comparing my numbers from last week, there are a few that I did less, and a few that I did more.

AB ripper was crazy again. I definitely feel sore.

I don't really have a lot to say about it this time. We'll just keep on going. :)

p90x - Day 5 and 6 (and 7)

I totally forgot to write about this weekend.

So Friday night was another weights day. Legs and Back, and then ab ripper. A LOT of squats. holy crap. My knees are still pretty weak, so I had to modify the workouts a lot. This is really going to be my hardest part to improve on. I have to break the idea in my head that I can't do that exercise because of my knees. So that will be my challenge through this.

Saturday was Kenpo. That was fun, and quite the workout. I enjoyed that. It's basically kickboxing. I am not very good with some of the kicks, so that will be my improvement area for that workout.

Sunday was rest day. But I went out and got a set of 20# weights. I found one on clearance for $20, but had to buy another one at full price. That puts our weight sets at 5#, 10#, and 20#. Monday starts the whole thing over again, so we'll see if there is any improvement.

p90x Day 4 - Yoga!

I have always thought that yoga was a waste of time and only done by hippies.

Oooooohhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

So, today's workout was yoga. I'm not totally sold on it yet, however I was often surprised at just how hard some of these poses are. There were some times where I was sweating more than I was during the Plyometrics day. And then other times where I felt bored. The whole workout was about 90 minutes which when it started seemed like WAY too long for a bunch of stretches. But it actually went relatively quick.

There is a lot of balance involved in yoga that I didn't realize was needed. There were some poses that I just couldn't maintain. Either I just lost my balance, or because I couldn't hold the pose for that long. Some of the stretches really felt good though. The thing with this is that I can't quite see where the improvement will be. With the other exercises, I can see where I can improve the weights or do more reps. But with yoga...what do I do? Stretch straighter? Stretch longer?

There was a couple poses though that are quite impressive that they were able to hold that long. Like the crane. You've probably seen it. You put your hand on the ground and tuck your knees at your elbows, and then lift your feet off the ground. That one takes a lot more strength I think. And the bridge. I can actually do it without any problems, but I can't hold it for that long because my wrists fail after about 10 seconds. These guys were holding it for like 30 or 40 seconds. Crazy.

Anyway, That's yoga. It's tough to not stop the video at the boring parts. Luckily as soon as it starts getting boring, they throw in a new part that takes more energy. Overall, it was a good calming workout.

p90x Day 3

Day 3! Tonight was shoulders and arms, and ab ripper. I used 10# weights for the whole thing. 10# was a perfect amount for the shoulder and triceps exercises. But it wasn't enough for the bicep workouts. I will probably go buy some 15# for the next time it comes around. Eventually I'll probably need to just buy a whole set, but a little at a time. I struggled most with the shoulder stuff. Flys, etc. That takes some work. Triceps I did okay. Biceps I breezed through so i tried to modify them a bit. I would try to go a little slower and flex at the end. Or I did more if I could.

Ab ripper is a crazy workout. I couldn't do all 25 reps for any of the workouts. Some of them are just hard, others were easy but i just ran out of gas. There are a few the require you to raise your legs, and I don't know if I am just doing it wrong or if I just have a weak back, but my lower back was on fire during these ones. I think I just need to strengthen that area, so hopefully it'll get better.

That's all for tonight.

p90x day 2

Today was day 2. Plyometrics. All I can say is oh my gosh. Lets start with results from yesterday. My upper back is a bit sore from some of the workouts. If I move certain ways, then I can feel different parts of my body that are sore. That said, I've been in FAR worse pain before when it comes to working out. This pain is manageable, which really only tells me that I can press harder.

So as I said today was Ploymetrics. The p90x plyometrics is basically an hour of squats and jumps and stuff...and then occasionally the guy comes out of the TV and kicks you in the balls. This one was definitely tough. We made it through, but half way I was already getting that 'I'm gonna vomit soon' feeling, but I was able to push through it. I definitely had to modify most of the workouts. I still have caution about knee problems that I've had in the past, so I didn't want to press too hard too early.

But I can for sure see where the improvement is available in these workouts. It is going to be very easy to be able to increase the intensity. Even something as simple as raising your arms over your head during some of workouts makes it tougher. So I'm excited to be able to do that. As I said, it was mostly squats tonight, and I modified them to some extent. There were some that involved some jumping, and I modified those by stepping into the squats instead of jumping. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to do those the way they were intended.

Again though, it feels so good to be working out again.

P90x Day 1

My wife and I decided to finally start p90x this week. I decided tonight to write about our progress.

So here are my beginning stats. Weight is 180. Body fat percentage (taken from the scale that supposedly can calculate it) is 21.5%. Chest is 40". Waist is 38". Hips are 38.5". Right and left Thigh each 23.25". Right arm (measured at bicep, flexed) 13.75". Left arm (measured same as right) 13.5".

So the first day is Chest & back, and then ab-ripper. Chest and back is basically an hour of push-ups and pull ups. There was a few "rowing" type moves that involved the weights as well, mostly used for the back. Ab ripper...ugh. That is an intense workout, and it's only 15 minutes long. They said there are ~340 individual moves that work your abs in that 15 minutes.

All in all, it's a great workout. I'm excited to be working out again, and I am really hoping that this will give us some great results. From what I've heard, it really will. Even without doing the diet. We decided to not really follow the diet plan. We're both not really going for weight loss, more for toning up. That's not to say I'm going to just eat ice cream every night. We're already eating relatively healthy, so there won't be too much in the change of diet.

I'll try to update this each day with the workout results.